LPR Activists Picket Dutch Embassy In Support of Toine Manders

Members of the Libertarian Party of Russia (LPR) organized a series of one-person pickets in front of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow in support of Toine Manders, the former leader of the Dutch Libertarian Party kept in custody since the end of January. In January 2014 Manders was arrested in Cyprus on vague and, we have reasons to believe, trumped-up charges and extradited to the Netherlands where he has been kept in custody all the while. On March 4, 2014, a Dutch court extended Manders’s detention by another 3 months – still on the slurred charges of ‘unlicensed consultancy activities’. The picketers also handed the following letter to the Dutch Ambassador Ron van Dartel from the Chairman of the LPR Federal Committee Andrey Shalnev.

The picketers also handed the following letter to the Dutch Ambassador
Ron van Dartel from the Chairman of the LPR Federal Committee
Andrey Shalnev.

"Your Excellency,I’d like to bring to your notice that at the end of January my colleague, the former head of the Libertarian Party of the Netherlands Toine Manders was arrested in Cyprus on vague charges of ‘unlicensed consulting activities’ and extradited to the Netherlands. For over a month Mr. Manders was kept in custody pending trial, without books or access to internet. He was also denied any visitors apart from his lawyers. On the 4th or March a court extended his detention by another 3 months, albeit under less harsh conditions. However, no specific charges have been brought against him as yet.

This lack of clearly articulated charges invites speculation as to the steps taken by the Dutch authorities being politically motivated and may arouse suspicion that both Toine Manders and the Libertarian Party of the Netherlands are being prosecuted for political reasons. Toine Manders’s name was to head the libertarians ticket in the European Parliament election. Now Manders is in prison, the Dutch libertarian candidates have had to withdraw from the election.

On behalf of the Libertarian Party of Russia, I wish to ask you to bring our concern over the apparently wrongful arrest of Mr. Manders to the attention of the Dutch authorities."